Soap Guild Conference Goodie Bag Giveaway! (giveaway closed)

Bramble Berry is proud to once again sponsor the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild Conference! We’re providing conference goers with super sized sample bags packed to capacity with some of our favorite Bramble Berry products, and sending along super soaper Kathryn Hackney (check out previous Soap Queen appearances here and here) to teach a Cold Process Colorant Master class. Don’t forget that our fabulous guest bloggers will be reporting back on other classes and conference happenings!

Bummed about not being able to attend this year’s conference? Not to worry. We’re keeping everyone in the loop by offering you the option to purchase the a super-sized version of the kit we included in the goodie bags through Brambleberry.com in a full size handy cold process kit. And we’re offering a PDF download of Kat’s amazing Cold Process Colorant Master Class and Powerpoint presentation so you can feel like you were right there with her. While it’s not quite the same as being there, it’s a close second.

Pictured above are three (yes, three!) different soaps that you can make with your Soap Guild Goodie Bag kit. And that’s not all – scroll down to the end of this post to read about how you can win your very own Soap Guild Goodie Bag Kit Sample! The giveaway has closed and winners are being contacted! Thank you to all those who entered.

You can click here to purchase the Super Sized Soap Guild Goodie Bag Kit and save over $15. The individual items are:

SAFETY: Suit up for safe handling practices! Long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection are necessary when making cold process soap. Eye glasses are not sufficient protection. Be sure that kids, pets, and other tripping/distraction hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

ONE: Melt the entire bag of Quick Mix oils. Give the bag a good shake and measure out 1.3 ounces by weight.

TWO: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.

THREE: When the lye water and the oils have reached 120 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), carefully pour the lye water into the oils. Pulse the stick blender at first, then keep a steady mix until the lye water and oils are emulsified and the mixture reaches medium trace.

FOUR: Pour the soap into the Small 9 Ball Sphere mold. Gently tamp the mold on the table to remove air bubbles and use a soap cutter or other non-reactive straight edge to clean the top of the mold of any dribbles.

FIVE: Cover and insulate for 24 hours. Unmold after 3-4 days.

PART TWO: Make the loaf soap

Recipe:

9.7 oz Swirl Quick Mix

1.3 oz Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)

3.2 oz Distilled Water

0.75 oz Lavender Essential Oil

Activated Charcoal

Small Silicone Loaf Mold

SAFETY: Suit up for safe handling practices! Long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection are necessary when making cold process soap. Eye glasses are not sufficient protection. Be sure that kids, pets, and other tripping/distraction hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

ONE: Melt the entire bag of Quick Mix oils and measure out 9.7 ounces by weight.

TWO: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.

THREE: When the lye water and the oils have reached 120 degrees or below, carefully pour the lye water into the oils. Pulse the stick blender at first, then keep a steady mix until the lye water and oils are emulsified and the mixture reaches light trace.

FOUR: Add Lavender Essential oil to the soap batter and mix in using a whisk.

SIX: Pour the charcoal colored soap into the mold, filling about 1/4 full. Gently place 3 embeds randomly in the soap. Cover with another 1/4 of the soap, and place another three embeds in the soap. Repeat with one more layer of soap and embeds, and cover with one last layer of soap so that the embeds are completely hidden.

SAFETY: Suit up for safe handling practices! Long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection are necessary when making cold process soap. Eye glasses are not sufficient protection. Be sure that kids, pets, and other tripping/distraction hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

ONE: Melt the entire bag of Quick Mix oils. Give the bag a good shake and measure out 1.3 ounces by weight.

TWO: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.

THREE: When the lye water and the oils have reached 120 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), carefully pour the lye water into the oils. Pulse the stick blender at first, then keep a steady mix until the lye water and oils are emulsified and the mixture reaches medium trace.

FOUR: Pour the soap into the Small 9 Ball Sphere mold. Gently tamp the mold on the table to remove air bubbles and use a soap cutter or other non-reactive straight edge to clean the top of the mold of any dribbles.

SAFETY: Suit up for safe handling practices! Long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection are necessary when making cold process soap. Eye glasses are not sufficient protection. Be sure that kids, pets, and other tripping/distraction hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

ONE: Melt the entire bag of Quick Mix oils and measure out 9.7 ounces by weight.

TWO: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.

THREE: When the lye water and the oils have reached 120 degrees or below, carefully pour the lye water into the oils. Pulse the stick blender at first, then keep a steady mix until the lye water and oils are emulsified and the mixture reaches light trace.

FOUR: Add Lavender Essential oil to the soap batter and mix in using a whisk.

SAFETY: Suit up for safe handling practices! Long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection are necessary when making cold process soap. Eye glasses are not sufficient protection. Be sure that kids, pets, and other tripping/distraction hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

ONE: Melt the entire bag of Quick Mix oils and measure out 11 ounces by weight.

TWO: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.

THREE: When the lye water and the oils have reached 120 degrees or below, carefully pour the lye water into the oils. Pulse the stick blender at first, then keep a steady mix until the lye water and oils are emulsified and the mixture reaches light trace.

FIVE: Split the batches into three equal parts. To one part, add 2 teaspoons Annatto Seed infusion. To the second part, add all of the dispersed clay. Leave the third part uncolored. Mix in the colorants with a whisk so as not to accelerate trace.

SIX: From a high vantage point, pour the Annatto Seed colored soap batch into the uncolored batch in three spots: 12:00, 4:00 and 8:00, then one in the center. Reserve about 2 Tablespoons of soap for the swirled top. Repeat with the Red Brazilian clay colored batch, again reserving about 2 Tablespoons of soap.

SEVEN: Using a chopstick or skewer, drag through each of the entry points and including the center. Only drag the skewer through the soap once. Be careful not to overmix – you want to swirl, not blend!

EIGHT: Pour the soap into the mold. As you pour, the soap will continue to mix slightly and enhance the swirl you started with the chopstick!

NINE: Using the reserved Annatto colored soap, pour in an “s” curve parallel to the longer edge of the mold. Follow the “s” created with the Annatto soap with a second “s” using the Red Brazilian clay colored soap. Drag a skewer or chopstick inserted into the top 1/4” of the soap in another “s” curve that is perpendicular to the one created by the soap.

276 Comments

If you buy the kit as a whole instead of buying each individual item in this tutorial, you will actually save $15 off your entire order by purchasing the Soap Guild Cold Process Kit. I hope this helps to explain! You can find the kit here on Bramble Berry’s website:

Thank you so much for your suggestion, we really appreciate it. Due to FDA regulations, Sunscreen/SPF is considered a drug by the FDA and you cannot make any claims about your product protecting you from the sun. But you can use titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as they have been known to help with sun protection.

Here is the actual languaging that defines sunscreen as a drug is here:

Hi, I have been having a hard time making tiger stipe soap. Perhaps you can have a full tutorial on all the ingredients that go into the recipe including the fragrance oil. It seems my batter gets to thick. Not sure if I am using the wrong formula.

Thank you so much for your suggestion, we really appreciate it. Have you checked out the Tiger Stripe “Hanger” Swirl Tutorial on the blog yet? It’s a full tutorial with all the ingredients and ratios you would need to make it!

Like some of the others mentioned, I’d like to see a sls free shampoo bar/hair soap. Kill two birds with one stone and make it a liquid, as I don’t a lot of tutorials on liquid soap. Hit the trifecta by making it suitable for color treated hair, and the crown royal by adding natural colorants which naturally color hair over time. There are many products out there which naturally color hair over time, coffee for brunettes, etc. Do away with sls and harsh chemicals completely.

And, Anne-Marie is planning to do another shampoo bar post soon, so make sure to subscribe to the Soap Queen blog to get the newest soapy tutorials delivered to your inbox! Thank you so much for your suggestions, we appreciate them. =)

#1 I would love to see label design ideas. It has been one of the most challenging aspects for me. #2 Determining colorant usage rates in CP. With every new design, that seems to get me every time. Not enough, or too much. ugh. #3 Love the CP recipes. keep them coming!

Love those ideas, and you’ll be happy to know that Anne-Marie has been planning a few new tutorials on the Soap Queen blog using alternative liquids! Be sure to subscribe to blog to make sure you can keep up-to-date of the newest soapy recipes.

hi!
I was thinking about this the other day – I would Love to see some tutorials on the recipes Anne-Marie makes for the new little one. We have lots of new babies in our church family, would love some tried and true CP baby soap recipes, like an all-over head-to-toe Baby Soap, with a mild baby-friendly EO scent.
Thanks! Also, any way to get a coupon book????

Thank you so much for the great suggestions, we really appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you’d like to see on the Soap Queen blog. The coupon book from the goodies bags at the Soap Guild Show were actually exclusive to conference attendees. But, you do have the chance to get those fun little coupons if you are a winner of one of the goodie bags in this post.

And if you are looking for some some baby-friendly recipes, here are a few to try out:

Hello there! I would LOVE to see a tutorial on how to make those large, life-like cp soap cakes, they look so intricate and amazing! It would be lovely to see what it takes to make one of those, especially with the icing and decorating of the “cake” in cp soap! Thanks Bramble Berry team for all that you do!

Congrats to Anne Marie and her beautiful new Bramble Baby! I’d like to see a tutorial on how to build a gift basket; seems like a no-brainer, but it can actually be quite difficult! Placement, filler, size of basket, how much to charge based on what’s in it; ideas on what to put in the basket — so much to figure out!

I know these have been requested already but here is my list: mosaics, layering, tops, embeds, and fragrance blending. I love everything you share, so much fun. And, thank you for all your responses, there is a wealth of information here too!

Those are such fun ideas and I can’t wait to see what Anne-Marie is going to come up with after seeing all of these suggestions. If you are interested in mosaics, I’d suggest checking out this post (*hint hint*). =)

I would love to see a tutorial describing all the different ways to top soaps. Also something about fragrance and the best way to make blends would be great! Also if you guys can go over what liquids work great in CP soaping and which we should stay away from. Sometimes mt creativity doesn’t agree with the science. (Lemon juice is a no-no trust me haha). Lastly, a blog or vlog dedicated to exfoliating and all the things we can put in CP soap to help get our skin softer. Thanks so much you guys! Y’all have created a lifelong soaper!

Love your list of soapy ideas — they are all things that are so much fun to learn about! I know Anne-Marie will definitely be writing some fun blogs in the future so make sure to subscribe to the Soap Queen blog to keep up-to-date on the newest tutorials. =)

Hey there, I did not read through all 235 comments to see if anyone else has posted the same thing. I saw someone post about troubleshooting and that got me thinking about a couple of issues and how to deal with them. First one is ricing. I haven’t had trouble with any of your FOs and ricing (another vendor) but would be interesting in how to avoid such a problem, if that’s possible.

Also, am wondering about layering MP and CP soap. I think you’ve done a tutorial on mixing the two, but can you layering them? I tried one time and the layers split apart. CP on the bottom, MP on top.

Did you do a tutorial on shampoo bars, can’t remember?

What about rebatching a soap so you can add precious (as in expensive) EOs that would not survive saponification and would add some benefits to the soap.

Can’t wait to hear about Anne-Marie and the new baby! I’m thinking of her today.

There are so many fabulous ideas from our customers on this blog post and I can’t wait to see what kind of tutorials are going to come from it. Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know what you would like to see, we really appreciate it!

Currently, the only shampoo bar recipe we have is the Invigorating Shampoo Bars, but Anne-Marie is working on another hair-loving recipe that should be going up on the blog soon!

Those soaps look great! I’ve had my eye on the sphere embed mold for a while! The conference sounds like so much fun! I will have to look into it and maybe attend in the future. All of your tutorials are amazing, but I do have a few suggestions for tutorials I would love to see.

1: Whipped soap-the kind that floats.
2: Making bath bombs that turn your bath colors! I would love to know the exact amounts of colorants and glitter needed to turn the water into a colorful glittery mess without coloring your skin.
3: More dessert soaps! I love seeing the intricate cakes and ice cream soaps with different flavors and toppings!

I would love to learn how to do these things, and thanks for the opportunity to win the sample kit! Best wishes to A-M and her growing family

Hi Brambleberry, how about a suggestion on what to do with all the soap I enjoy making? I can’t seem to give any more away – LOL! I’m not interested in it becoming a business, I just enjoy tinkering around. I would like to see a dog shampoo bar, people ask me about it even though I don’t have dogs (?!) and I might be able to commission them. I’d also like to see a chart that shows the different additive you can add and what the effects would be – all in one place. Loving my new little hobby.

Hi –
I just wanted to let you know that you can usually donate soap to Homeless Shelters, Women’s Shelters and Pregnancy Centers. I am donating some, plus a bunch of the Bug Repellant bars to a young girl in our church who serves as a missionary delivering babies in Sudan. I know those little babies could benefit from natural stuff, or anything for that matter! I do sell soaps, etc., but I give away more than I sell and it has always worked out well for me! Everyone appreciates a nice bar of soap, or lotion, or anything!Good Luck!

Many people tend to give their soaps away to Homeless Shelter and Women Shelters as they are always looking for toiletries. I’d ask around at your local charities to see if anyone around you would like the soap. =) Thank you so much for your suggestions, we really appreciate them!

As someone new to CP soap, I’d love to see a tutorial on what happens AFTER the soaping: that is, on how to clean up safely.

I’d also love to see tutorials that have new and fun uses for some of the multi-purpose products: like new things to do with the bath whip and the liquid soap concentrate.

Last, I’m not sure if it’s the search function or me and my ability to use it, but I would love to have a page that gives all the links for CP basic and intermediate skills, like swirling and adding color. I’ve been able to find some posts, but I’d love to have a list of the different swirling techniques in one place. I’ve tried looking though all the posts in the Cold Process link on the left of the blog, but I still have a difficult time finding things.

Thank you so much for your suggestions, we really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to let us know what you would like to see. And here are a few blog posts on swirling that I Think you would like:

These days I (and my customers) are all about natural colorants and botanicals, essential oils and simple soaps with a touch of flair and luxury, whether through design or ingredients. Any suggestions and tutorials along the same lines would be greatly loved!

I would also enjoy tutorials (and encouragement!) on cream soap and liquid soap.

Natural colorants are all the rage and we love seeing out customers use natural herbs and botanicals to color their soaps. For a great resource on how to do that, here is a great e-book that Anne-Marie put together that I just love:

I’m not new to soap making but I took a hiatus. Now I’m back! Trying to remember, find and create good basic recipes can be challenging. I’d love to see more tutorials on how to choose your oils, create your own recipes and how that effects soap formulations.

I’ll definitely add your suggestion to the list and if you are looking for more information about how to choose oils and butters for your cold process recipes, I’d definitely pre-order Anne-Marie’s new soapcrafting book which will go over that and more!

I am new to soap making. I started with silk rose petals dipped in Lavender scented M&P and I caught the desire to more. I am looking forward to trying several of your tutorials and expanding my creative outlet.

Welcome to the soapmaking world! If you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask — we are here to help you out. =) Here are some great resources that I think can totally help you out as well as provide some extra soapy inspiration:

I love all that you guys show us! So inspirational… I would love to see more tutorials with other items in your shop. I am still somewhat new at soaping and love to buy items from your monthly sale items… Maybe a tutorial to accompany what is on sale that month. Also, liquid soap. I have purchased your liquid soap base and want to use it but I’m apprehensive.

Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your suggestions, we love hearing them! If you are signed up for Bramble Berry’s newsletter, we often have tutorials for what is on sale in them. To sign up, just go this link and enter your e-mail address to start getting soapy newsletters every month.

I would love to see a tutorial on making landscape soaps. Also, a post on mixing colors for mineral make-up, such as getting a great color match for foundation. Some of the other things already mentioned that I am also interested in are the cupcakes made entirely from CP soap, how to build a fragrance blend, and in-depth info on EOs (such as theraputic benefits and medical concerns). Thank you for all of the great information you have already posted!

Those are super great suggestions and we appreciate you taking the time to post them. =) If you are looking on more information about mixing colors for makeup, I would definitely check out the Mineral Makeup Guide Book. It gives lots of great information (and color blends), you can find it here: http://www.brambleberry.com/Mineral-Makeup-Guide-Book-P3622.aspx

And you are in luck, here is a really fun cold process soap cupcake recipe:

I love any and all tutorials! Perhaps one for a soft soap like you wash your hands with? I really like the exfoliating kind from Bath and Body Works, so a tutorial for something similar would be great.

WoW, you have already covered soooo much that I always question how you come up with such need ideas! The one thing I have on my to do list is liquid soap… but there is something about it that has me delaying the learning process. If you have not done a liquid soap blog that would be great!

Welcome to the soapmaking world! If you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Since you are just starting out, here are a few resources that I think can totally help you out and provide some extra soapy inspiration.

I’m a handmade soap newbie and I’m blown away! My exczema is gone, I no longer need a body moisturizer thanks to TheSoapBoss!! Her soaps are delectable, and I can’t get enough. I started googling artisan soaps and started a private pin board on Pinterest because beside my paper crafting LOVE, soap and soap designing are coming a close second!! I am privileged to live in the same city as my soaping Guru but an yet to get my “pour-on”. Winning this would put me over the edge ;). I’m soooo excited!!!

I would love to see some ideas on blending fragrances, especially on blending essential oils for CP soap. My other tutorial wish would be for a tutorial on making emulsified sugar scrubs.
I love all the great tutorials that you have and all the information that you make available. It’s my “go to” place whenever I’m looking for new ideas!

Thank you so much for your suggestions, they are so helpful. =) Did you know that Anne-Marie actually create a premium video on how to make emulsified scrubs? You can find it on Bramble Berry’s website here:

I really love all of the how-tos and hints and tricks that Brambleberry offers. They all are so informative and inspirational. What I would really like to see more of tutorial wise is how-tos for more body products. Bramblebarry has a few lotion recipies, a shanpoo bar, some body scrubs, and a few other things, but I would like more. Maybe some recipes for facial bars that has a list of essential oils and other ingredients that help with specific problems, like one facial bar for acne, one for anti-aging and so on. I know Brambleberry is a soap making supplies supplier, but you also have so many great products to be used in facial bars and scrubs, lotions, shampoos and conditioners and it would be nice to have many tutorials showing how to use the numerous products Brambleberry offers.

We appreciate your suggestions so much and thank you for taking the time out of your day to let us know what you would like to see on Bramble Berry’s website.

As per the FDA standards, we cannot claim that any of our ingredients cures, helps or fixes any skin problems, but there are several of Bramble Berry’s products that have known skin-loving properties that you can use in your scrubs, soap, lotions and more. Make sure to always check the individual product pages when you are purchasing from Bramble Berry’s website for more information on your products.

Hi! So grateful for all the great resources you’ve made available. They are so helpful. My suggestions would be more baby friendly products (soap, baby wash, etc)and since summer is just around the corner maybe a sunblock or an after sun lotion or cream to cool the burn. Thanx again for giving us soapers fantastic ideas to satisfy our soaping fix:)

Really appreciate the tutorials on cold process soap you’ve posted.
Would love to see one on how much mica and pigment to use. Just can’t seem to get a purple for swirls. Ends up either being gray or blue.

Coloring soaps is actually my favorite part about soapmaking because you can come up with so many varieties of color. The amount of colorant really depends on what colorant you are using and how much soap you are making. Here is a super great blog post that A-M wrote that I find myself referring to all the time:

I would love to see a tutorial on how to make embeds that look like the real deal – for example: on YouTube, soaper Kyme from Alamo Candelaria (Alamo1731) made a CP soap called Citron et Figue that had HP embeds which looked like real figs. I’ve also seen pictures of other fruit soaps (like apples and plums) that looked SO life-like. I would love to learn how to do that I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I win this. I’ve only ever worked with MP and rebatch – I really want to try CP & HP. And thank you to everyone at BB for the great products and *wonderful* customer service! I just got my latest order of MP base and fragrances this afternoon and I can’t wait to dig in

Thanks for stopping by and letting us know what you would like to see. Have you seen the Soap Queen TV episode using Bramble Berry’s Flexy Fast Molding Putty yet? It’s a create tool to use when you’d like to create your own fun personalized molds.

Were you able to attend the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild Conference? You’ll have to keep us updated on what you end up both the molds for, and if you get any pictures, be sure to share them with us on Bramble Berry’s Facebook page.

We are so glad to hear that you were able to make it to the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild Conference and it sounds like you had a ton of fun! Thanks for stopping by and I will let Anne-Marie know of your good wishes for her and the family. =)

I would very much like to see an elemental swirl soap queen video! I know with the “Bramble Girl” coming that may be a long way off but I thought I’d throw the idea out there.

Also an in depth tutorial on making swirled, piped, or otherwise embellished CP soap tops would be great. I usually swirl my tops but want to add more interest in the coming months and would love a little guidance.

I would like to learn more about deciphering the notes of a frangrance. How do I know what is a top, middle, and a bottom note when I smell a single fragrance? I would also like tips on ‘topping’ my soaps.

I would like a tutorial on making the liquid soap, shower gel, bubble bath, etc. Also, cp cupcakes, texture tops and how you cover to prevent soap ash from forming on them. I love all your tutorials and my list keeps growing.

All of those are terrific suggestions and they are defintley going on the list. =)

The easiest way to prevent soda ash is to soap at lower temperatures as well as spritzing the top of your soap with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol as soon as it has started to setup and ‘putting it to bed’ (insulating and covering your soap). If you are still getting soda ash, try working with a lower superfat and decrease your water amount by 10%.

I hope this helps and keep your eyes peeled on the Soap Queen blog for new and exciting tutorials.
-Becky with Bramble Berry

I would love to see tutorials on some of the soap challenge techniques that have been going on lately! I love the look of the leopard spots, mica oil siwlrs, and tiger stripes! I would love the Soap Queen input on how to accomplish the techniques with ease! =)

I absolutely loved seeing all the fun soapy entries into the soap challenge over the past couple of months and really loved what people came up with. You are actually in luck, Anne-Marie is planning to create a cold process tutorial for the leopard spots soap and already has one for the tiger stripe effect!

Question on the alcohol spritzing. I’ve always used whatever percentage I’ve had on hand, but since noticed you indicate 91%. I can readily get my hands on 77% and 99%. Would you let me know the rhyme or reason to the 91%? I haven’t had a problem with the 77, but is higher better for some reason? (and is 99 TOO high?)
Thanks

I would love tutorial on usage rates of EO’s in CP and how to “anchor” the EO’s to make them stick in CP after gel. More on CP embeds in CP. Maybe something on how to make your own small silicone molds for things like embeds. I’d love to learn to pipe CP on soap loaves and CP cupcakes. Off subject but I’d love you have some of the tall/narrow wooden molds (or silicone) for CP. Thanks for this opportunity and can’t wait to see what is next!

This is my first post! I would like to discover more natural colorants. I have not tried clays, but plan to soon. I would also like to hear about how to store soaps…wrapped and kept on shelves or in a refrid without it being on just so moisture does not get in.

Natural colorants are all the rage right now and there are so fun colors and designs that you can make with them. Anne-Marie actually wrote a book on how to infuse herbs and botanicals into your oils to get those vibrant and intense colors you might be looking for.

This summer, my 3 nieces (ages 10, 14 and 16) are coming for a few weeks and I want to do some fun easy M&P projects. They esp. want to do some soap cupcakes – we will do mini cupcake sizes to use as hand soaps in the guest bathroom. And we will do some lip balms, also.

For all your tutorials, I especially love when you have a link to the printable PDF!

I just printed off the Hidden Color Bath Bombs tutorial yesterday and added it to my folder, so I am glad you agree that is a good one to try. We also thought we would try the “Easter Ducky” soap since that is M&P and I found some cure little duckies in the stores. And now my nephew (12) is joining us so we will try the Gorgeous Geode Soaps that I saw in the tutorials.

I LOVELOVELOVE all the great videos and tutorials – something for everyone from the beginner to the “professional” soapmaker.

I’d like to see more information on how additives (charcoal, clays, etc.) and essential oils can give your soap the added edge when selling it. For instance, how much activated charcoal needs to be added to say the soap helps remove toxins when you use it, or how much tea tree oil needs to be added to help with a skin problem. I understand that we can’t make medicinal claims about our soaps, but I’d like to be able to tell my customers that my soaps are good for their skin and their health and to be sure of what I’m telling them.

Natural herbs, botanicals and essential oils are great to add your products and can definitely be beneficial for the skin and I understand that it can be a fine line to walk when you can’t make any claims. We definitely appreciate your suggestions and I will pass them on! =)

I’m fairly new (Ok very new, just a few months under my belt) to soap making and really like the decorating tips I see on your site. I really would like to learn some time saving and maybe money saving tips all in one place e.g. I saw on a youtube video, someone buys the PH strips that are all one type of paper and cuts them in half therefore doubling the number of tests they can do.

Welcome to the soapmaking world! We are so excited you decided to start and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. We really appreciate your suggestions and I’ll make sure that they get passed on. In the meantime, here are some fun resources for you to check out:

I would like to learn more about how to become certified with the soap making guild and what the certification entails. When I looked them up on the web it does not tell you ( or i couldnt find) how much is costs to become certified or what is expected on the tests. I believe you first have to register on their site to even click on their link to the testing info. In short I guess I am looking at expected costs to become a guild member and the benefits. I noticed being a member has some vendor discount perks which is nice when money is tight.

Thanks for the suggestions, we appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you’d like to learn more about. I’m sure that if you e-mailed the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild (their e-mail is at the bottom of the main page), they would be more than happy to help answer some of those questions you have. =)

I make so many things but I am at a total loss when it comes to making men products. So a few tutorials on like a shaving cream, after shave tonic, manly soaps, body washes, lotions, colognes and any other cool man like project. Also any creative rebatch you could manage with swirls and embeds.

would like to see actual tutorial of the snow globes that was in an email last year and the final definative way to use water soluble paper in soap–each of the present tutorials have slight differences and I would like to know which best!

Wow, most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but I do have a couple more. I would LOVE to see a tutorial for cream soap, I’ve had quite a few people ask for it lately! On that same note, my brother has been asking me for a soap-free shaving cream. He has extremely coarse facial hair, and has been using cheap hair conditioner to shave with, yuck! One last thing would be an aftershave lotion that men or women can use. A nice soothing lotion without the sting! Thanks for the opportunity to try for the giveaway! I love all your tutorials, although it gets me into trouble sometimes, (I HAVE to get the same fo’s and colorants that are in the tutorials, right?!)

I would love to see essential oil blends and fragrance blends. Also, anything to do with the hair: shampoo bars, conditioning bars etc. for different hair types. Thank you for all the wonderful videos and posts that you already do. I have learned alot from your sites.

I’m totally loving your suggestions, and we really appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you would like to see. Have you checked out the shampoo recipe that we featured on the blog last year?

Would definitely benefit from a tutorial of all oils, fragrances and colourants and their odd behaviour properties, maybe summed up in a chart? ie. such and such oil accelerates trace, or such and such colour turns a brown when it should be red. that sort of stuff. would be super helpful in recipe creating.
Also a visual ‘OMG what happened’ chart to compare and easily troubleshoot QUICKLY when a soap batch goes funky and you have no clue why. Strange things happen sometimes, don’t they
Thnx!
Oh and updates this summer about beauty bramble girl and bramble big bro I presume will be a plenty so I don’t have to ask!

Those are all great suggestions, and you can often read the individual product pages for the colorants and scents you are using to help troubleshoot what might have happened with your soap. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and letting us know what you would like to see. =)

I’m all about milk soaps and love using goats milk in my cold process soaps. We appreciate your suggestion and if you’d like to learn more about using different types of milk in your soaps, I would check out this Milk Soap book written by Anne-Marie.

Those are all great ideas and I can’t wait to pass them onto Anne-Marie. Have you seen the invigorating shampoo soap bar tutorial yet? It’s a one that I’ve actually made several times and can’t get enough of it.

After thinking and dreaming for a long time, I finally made CP soap. Thank you for the products you sell and the info and recipes. I would like to see some blog posts about how to take care of soap making supplies and equipment.

I would love to see a tutorial on peacock swirls! No matter how many YouTube videos I watch I still can’t get it right. Anything on embedding. Especially sucessfully embedding MP in CP. My embeds sweat and usually fall out so i have given up! Lastly, anything about going from hobby soap making to selling your soap. Steps you might need to take to get there. Brambleberry always has the most reliable information! Thanks so much!

I’d really like to see some more of the perfume/ aromatherapy tutorials and tutorials on scent blending. I just can’t get the amounts right and I get frustrated. More information on what signifies a base note, or middle note, or a top note would be cool. I really liked the couple of perfume videos that were made.

And I’d like maybe to see more smaller batch tutorials. Even a 5 pound soap batch is big for me and I’m not quite good enough at scaling down recipes yet to try a lot of the fun stuff I see!

Or maybe something completely wacky like a plaid cold process soap; I know there’s the info on how to make plaid M&P, but I think it’d be neat to see it done with cold process!

I totally understand how frustrating it is when you can’t get the right amount for your perfume and I will pass on that suggestion (and your others) to Anne-Marie. In the meantime, the book, Perfume, Splashes And Colognes is a great resource for creating your own blends.

There is actually a super easy way to resize any cold process soap recipe you find on the blog. Just pop the recipe into Bramble Berry’s handy lye calculator and hit calculate. Once you’ve gotten to the next screen, find the button that says “Resize Batch” and enter in the amount of oils you’d like to have in the recipe. The lye calculator will automatically resize your batch for you and you don’t have to do any calculations at all. How cool is that? =)

I have learned so much from all the wonderful toutorials and help from BB staff – thank you all.
Several things I would love to see:
1) Using items left in fridge or healthful things to add to CP soap: ie vegetables, juices, etc.
2) The reasons/benifits of infusing herbs in ois for CP: ie nettle in shampoo bar for shine.
3) Fragrance bend ideas with each FO/EO item for purchase on BB site.
4) Include reaction of EO/FO in CP soap on BB site. A lot are already there, but most are not with the EO’s…and I inevitably pick the FO that has no info on reaction in CP!
5)As someone else listed & I would like to second: creative ways to top CP soap…I have seen MP berries on top, but don’t know where to get them or the molds.
6)Oil Substitutes in recipes that will give same/different qualities to the soap. (Also I have seen in previous quick mix recipes the alternative oils and percentages of them for those of us that have overpurchased ois but did not see in the swirl quick mix recipes above.???)
7) Another shampoo bar recipe or what to put in a shampoo bar for different hair types.

I think it would be (fun?) neat/educational if you did a tutorial or series on what happens when things go wrong. For instance how to save volcano soap, or how to save soap that overheated, etc. Walk us through from start to finish.
Would also love to see more liquid shampoo info.
Someone else brought it up, but also some guidelines for formulating a CP recipe/oil properties info. Thanks for all the awesome info you bring to us on a regular basis!

I would love to see a tutorial that goes into adding fruit and/or vegetable puree to CP soaps. I saw a youtube video about adding carrot puree to a soap and have been wanting more information on what types of puree can be added and how to adjust your recipe in order to incorporate them, as well as how long their shelf life is.

You are in luck, Anne-Marie has actually been working on several fruit and vegetable puree cold process recipes and hopes to feature them on the blog soon. Make sure you are subscribed to Soap Queen so you can get them as soon as they are posted. =)

I would love to see a tutorial on Castile Soap and how to make it into a shampoo and shower gel base. I’d also love tutorials on how to thicken pre made bases that turn out like water after fragrances have been added. I’d also like a natural pet shampoo that i can create with castile soap if thats even possible, it may have too high of a ph. =)
BB you always inspire me to keep thinking and creating! Thank you!

Obviously cold process is much more popular but I would love to see more ideas and tutorials for the glycerin loving crowd. I know melt and pour can be pretty limited but it would be fun to learn more about what we can do with it.

Just my two cents. I do love everything you do on the blog and how great everyone at BB is. I wouldn’t be making the fun soaps I am if it wasn’t for y’all.

I have checked both out. (I read them every day when I first get up to work on soaping!)

I am looking forward to trying the geometry circles soon. I need to get a few more sales under my belt so I can buy a few more molds including the circular. I may try the same method with a rectangle mold.

Thanks for the suggestion, we appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you are looking for. Have you seen the Hot Process Series that Anne-Marie did this last fall? You can check it out here:

I am in agreement with many others – it is difficult to think of something you haven’t covered, but I definitely need to learn more about blending fragrances and essential oils. Perhaps something that guides us in creating or own blends instead of looking for suggested ratios… Thank you!

I attended the conference last year, I had to miss it this year! Last year I loved the swirling demos and had fun trying them. I love all your tutorials, I like trying new things, you come up with great stuff to try and great new products! Keep up the good work!

We are so sorry that you missed it this year and hope that you can make it next year. But, even if you did miss it this year, you have a chance to catch up on a class that was taught by Kathryn Hackney. Bramble Berry is now selling her full-color Cold Process Colorant Master Class to anyone who wasn’t able to see it in person. You can find it here:

Most bath and body handcrafters have a variety of floral, fruity, citrus or sensual EOs or FOs we use in soaps and other items. I would love more information about mixing these with different top, middle and base notes to create perfume for ourselves or others. Looking forward to more tutorials.

Summer brings luscious fresh fruit to mind – is it possible to successfully add fresh fruit to CP? Would like to see a tutorial exploring this – it was great how AM matched Pumpkin Spice FO w/ pumpkin puree. Fresh Washington raspberries and Sun Ripened Raspberry would be a great pairing, especially if the seeds would add texture. Thanks!

This is something that Anne-Marie is actually working on right now. =) She recently tried out a recipe for a Strawberries & Cream soap as well as a Carrot & Cucumber Puree Soap. You can check out her Vine Videos on it here:

Are you adding anything to the tops of your soaps like herbs or botanicals? The easiest way to prevent soda ash is to soap at lower temperatures as well as spritzing the top of your soap with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol as soon as it has started to setup and ‘putting it to bed’ (insulating and covering your soap). If you are still getting soda ash, try working with a lower superfat and decrease your water amount by 10%. I hope this helps! =)

If you are M&P soaper, here is a link that you should definitely check out. It’s full of all sorts of M&P projects that will give you inspiration for scent blends and colors to use in your soaps. Thank you so much for your suggestion! =)

I would love to see some projects using potassium hydroxide. Such as a base and be able to turn it into multiple projects such as shampoo, hand soap and such. Plus I’ll add my vote into all the suggestions about using M&P with CP.

Liquid soap is such a fun project to tackle, but it does tend to take longer than most soap recipes and that is why we don’t have too many recipes for it on the blog. But, I will pass this onto A-M and let her know you are looking for some recipes along that line. =)

Sorry if this was already said. I would love to see tutorials on formulating recipes for CP soap. It’s great to have a recipe that’s already been tested but I always wonder, why those oils and why in those proportions.

It is a super great suggestion and we will definitely add it to the list. If you are interested in learning on how to formulate cold process recipes, I would definitely pre-order Anne-Marie’s new soapcrafting book as she does go over how to do that in it.

Hi, I would LOVE to see more mineral makeup posts. The micas that brambleberry sells are amazing and I would love more info about mineral makeup. Recipes/tutorials for eyeshadows, foundation,concealed, etc. Thanks!

Thanks for stopping by and giving us such great suggestions. If you haven’t already checked out our Mineral Makeup Guide booklet, you totally should. It’s full of fun little recipes for eyeshadows, foundations, blushes and more.

Natural colorants are all the rage right now and we do have a few tutorials in store that you will just love. In the meantime, I’d definitely check out this e-book on infusing natural colorants into your soap that Anne-Marie wrote. It’s a super great resource for anyone looking into getting into more natural soaps.

I would love to see a tutorial on making shower gels! I am getting request and have been experimenting with your soap concentrate. But would love it if you could save me some product and offer a tutorial. Thanks.

I love experimenting with our liquid soap bases and have made so many different version of bubble baths and bath gels (it’s so much fun!). I’ll definitely pass this on to Anne-Marie and the team so that she can create something to share. =)

I would love to see some bubble bath or basic liquid soap recipes come out. Also a cheetah or zebra print melt and pour loaf would be excellent! I have read just about every recipe on this site and I just have to say it provided me so much inspiration! Also a cold processed cupcake soap project would be neat. Once again, thank you for all the inspiration. It has helped my business a lot.

Thanks for stopping by with your suggestion, we really appreciate all of the comments our readers are giving us. Anne-Marie actually has planned to make a tutorial for the famous leopard print cold process soap that has been making the rounds in the soapmaking world and can’t wait to share it with all of you. If you are looking for a cold process cupcake recipe, I’d try out this one that Erin from Naiad Soap Arts shared with us:

I watched Soap Queen tutorials for months before I dipped my toe in to make my own soap. I first wanted to be sure I had plenty of supplies. I placed order after order, each time thinking, dang, I forgot THAT!
Part of it was because I would watch a tutorial and the ingredients would be different than the previous one. I just keep an open cart running adding items as needed.
I have a request, I LOVE browsing through the fragrances and EOs, but It’s difficult to know which ones behave, and if not, what is the reaction in CP without going to each individual scent and reading BB caution if it’s a misbehaver I’d like to see a list of the ones we have to be more careful with. As far as a tutorial, I LOVE the bloopers at the end. Would you consider doing one of “OOPSY” soap catastrophies? I know, being the Soap Queen, you wouldn’t have many, But I would like to see mistakes, and how to prevent or correct them.
Thanks SO much for all that BB amd SQ has done. You’re the BEST!!

We do list on Bramble Berry’s website which colors do discolor in cold process soap and unfortunately, there really isn’t a lot you can do other than plan your color scheme around the discoloration. You can using our Vanilla Color Stabilizer, but that only works marginally well in CP soap for 4-9 months.

I love this site! You are what got me started making soap! I would love to see a tutorial on natural colourants inCP soap, and whether those colourants would also work in M&P. Thank you for letting us post these questions! BB rocks!

We are so glad that you have started soaping and if you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask — we are here to help you out!

If you are looking for more natural colorants in M&P, here is a great blog post that Kat from Otion wrote last year. I do a lot of M&P projects and I find myself referring to this blog post quite a bit.

I would like to see more tutorials on all natural products. Maybe like shampoo and conditioner. Maybe a shampoo that has a 4.0-5.0 ph balance. I’ve look all over the web and haven’t been able to find answers on how to make that.

We are all about creating natural recipes and we can’t wait for you to see the ones we have in store. I’ll definitely pass your recommendation onto Anne-Marie. Here are a few that we’ve already done that you might like:

I would love to see more tutorials on the following: 1) Ways to use melted M & P in cold process soaps. Other creations other than the magma soap (which was awesome btw).
2) Creative ways to use cold process embeds.
3) Choosing color combinations for soaps and determining amount of color to use.
4) Creative ways to top soaps, such as, curls, swirls, dried flowers, etc.
5) How to make soap cupcakes with whipped soap topping.
6) Education on what qualities/benefits different oils bring to soap and their impact on hardness, trace/thickness, etc.

Thanks for this opportunity. I love love love your tutorials and vidoes.

And, be sure to be on the lookout for Anne-Marie’s new book that is coming out in August which will have a great wealth of information on the different qualities and benefits of the oils and butters in your soaps. =)

Becky, on the suggestion for using MP in CP, I am referring to using the MP melted similar to the magma soap blog you did, but in different designs. At one time I came across a site that the owner used MP in CP and had such beautiful designs. But of course I lost it when my PC crashed. It looked like veins of marble or granite. They were beautiful.

Just wanted to clear up my suggestion. I know Anne Marie has done several blogs on embeds which are great. Thanks so much

I just simply love all your tutorials. As I come from Australia we don’t have guilds or conferences so I look forward to reading about all the conference happenings. Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge and techniques and I look forward to learning so much more.

Thanks for stopping by and giving your suggestions, we really do appreciate them. When you are talking about hand-milled soaps, are you referring to rebatch soap? We do have a few tutorials for that at the moment, but I can definitely pass it onto Anne-Marie that you are looking for more of them. =)

I always love to see new tutorials for advanced technics, like swirls, imbeds and layering but what I mostly need is advice on taking my soap business to the next level. I’m pretty good at selling it to friends and associates, local craft fairs, etc., but I would love to sell online. So what I’d really like to see is a series with advice about setting up Etsy shop or online shop, blogs, social media, insurance and taxes, etc. It’s not very sexy, but would really help to take my business to the next level. Thanks!

Those are great ideas, and we really appreciate you taking the time to comment and letting us know what you’d like to see on the soap queen blog. If you are looking for some more ideas using the new Brazilian Clays, here are a few CP recipes to check out:

I’ve been a Guild member for over 10 years and have yet to experience a conference – it would be so fun to win a piece of it! I’m so excited to have just found this site – still have a lot of exploring to do here, but I’ve already felt the effects on my motivation, which I really needed!

What I would love to see ( and might be here but I haven’t found yet!). Is
1 – creative ways of using natural colorants in cp
2 – I’d love to see a good tutorial on using just cp to make frosted cupcakes or other bakery goodies.
3 – and I’m desperate for a visual on making round labels for jars. Actually any practical help on making jar labels, round or not, would be greatly welcomed! (A “labels for dummies”!).

We hope you can make it to a guild conference one day, in the meantime, you can always check out the Soap Queen blog for lots of posts about this years show.

If you are looking for a great way to use natural colorants in your cold process soaps, I’d definitely check out this e-book that Anne-Marie wrote that is all about infusing natural colorants for your CP recipes. It’s a great read and I find myself referring to it constantly.

While I am obsessed with your soap tutorials and cannot get enough soap making tips, surprisingly enough the new things I want to learn are not soap related! On my list of things I want to try and would love to see tutorials on are: cloth diaper safe butt cream, a fluffy body butter, emulsified sugar scrubs, deodorant/antiperspirants (don’t laugh) and shimmering frosted lip balms (I can’t master the frosted look I’m going for!) Thanks so much!!

All of those are absolutely fabulous ideas and I already know that a few of them are already on Anne-Marie’s to-do list. Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions, and keep your eye on the Soap Queen blog for lots of goodies and tutorials coming your way. =)

All you need to do is enter in the recipe as is and have it calculate. Once you are in the next screen, find the resize batch button and choose the amount of oils you would like to work with. The calculator will then readjust your recipe for you. =)

-Becky with Bramble Berry

P.S. I’m totally with you on the chocolate body scrub and Otion Soap Bar actually just did a Chocolate Body Polish that I think you would just love!

All your information is so fabulous and comprehensive, it’s hard to pick a new topic! I struggle w fragrance ideas is more info on blends is always appreciated. For late summer I’ll be excited to see the lovely holiday inspiration you begin showing!

CPOP soaping is such a fun technique to use and I’ll definitely pass on to Anne-Marie that you would like to see more tutorials on it! Have you check out the Hot Process Soaping Series that A-M put together yet?

These soaps look wonderful! I’d promised my husband that I had enough molds, but now I’m starting to wonder if that’s really true…

I would love to see more tutorials about how to use the natural colorants that Bramble Berry offers. Knowing to disperse clays in water, or infuse something in oil, is really helpful if you’re just starting out!

A soaper never has too many molds. If you are interested in learning more about natural colorants, I’d definitely check out this infusing e-book that Anne-Marie wrote. It’s been super helpful to me when I’ve done my natural infusions.

To learn more about natural colorants and how to use them in your soap, I’d definitely suggest this e-book on infusing that Anne-Marie wrote. I love using natural colorants in my soaps and learning how to infuse the color into my oils has been so much fun.

I would love to see more about packaging. The different types of bottles, jars, boxes, wraps. Some different labeling ideas. Color combinations that compliment your fragrances. Different styles of packaging (ie. modern, rustic, whimsical, etc.). As Im finishing up my products to get them ready for an upcoming show Im now focusing on packaging and feel uninspired. Im learning about packaging as I go along but Im discovering options I didnt know existed and wishing I did before. Thats what I’d love to see!

Those are some super great suggestions, we appreciate you stopping by with your comments and I will definitely pass them on. In the meantime, here are some great links for packaging and labeling that you can check out:

I was at Conference Registration yesterday and would like to Thank You for the generous goodie bag you gave to us. I loved everything, but the molds are the best. I’m so excited to get to use it after the Conference is over!!!! Again Thank You, Dorine

I would love to see kid friendly posts for melt and pour. With summer coming it would be a great time to start getting my little ones involved in my ever growing hobby. I would also to see products geared towards our furry family members.

That’s a hot topic around here, what would we LOVE for the Soap Queen to teach us next. Since I’ve/we’ve learned so much from you already my greatest wish/request would be on blending essential and fragrance oils. You have a cal for amounts of these oils but as far as I’ve been able to figure out the program will allow only the input of one selection. I want to blend but I get scared and freeze, afraid I’ll use too much of one or the other. If this is possible that would be WONDERFUL. Also, I wouldn’t mind a few more lessons on spa products. I’m starting to look into adding these to my soap line.
Thanks for the time you took out of your day to read this request.
Happy Soaping!!

Thanks for the great feedback, we really appreciate it. Is there any particular troubleshooting issues that you would like to see addressed? If at anytime you have any questions about soaping or need some troubleshooting assistance, feel free to hop on over to Bramble Berry’s Facebook page — we are there to help you out!

If you are looking for a chocolate-type CP recipe that you could adapt to hot process, I’d definitely check out this tutorial that Anne-Marie put together. It’s one of my favorites in terms of scent, smell and design!